A firefighter battles to contain a blaze threatening homes in Los Angeles [REUTERS]

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the US state's governor, issued the declaration on Tuesday as fires fanned by desert winds threatened hundreds of homes on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

At least 19 houses and 30 mobile homes were destroyed as the blazes, driven by strong, dry winds, razed 6,000 hectares a day earlier.

The fiercest of two fires doubled in size to nearly 4,000 hectares on the northern side of the heavily populated San Fernando valley after a storm drove the blazes through parched brush in canyons and foothills overnight.

Firefighters said they had managed to steer the flames away from residential areas on Tuesday after helicopers dropped plumes of water over the blaze.

Thousands evacuated

Stan Lake, the state deputy fire chief, said: "We still have a long way to go with this fire season ... we're not out of the water yet."

The fires claimed the lives of a homeless man taking shelter under a flyover and a motorist who crashed on a smoke-enveloped road the day before.

The two fires are the first major conflagrations of southern California's fire season and were the largest of several that have swept the state since the weekend, devastating 11,000 hectares of land so far.

About 2,000 people were forced to flee after one fire razed 1,200 hectares of land on the Camp Pendleton US marine base, 130km south of Los Angeles.

Last year's, 30 wildfires swept through southern California in a single week, killing a dozen people, destroying 2,000 homes and forcing 500,000 residents to flee.

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